Happy Purim!

[Heresson]

Ester must have been nice.

[Provost Harrison]

Mmmm...ester...I love carboxylic acid/alcohol derived compounds

[Barnabas]

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Heresson
what is Purim, exactly? what is being celebrated?

Oh once there was a wicked wicked man,
And Haman was his name, Sir.
He would have murdered all the Jews,
Tho they were not to blame, Sir.

CHORUS:
Oh today we'll merry merry be
Oh today we'll merry merry be
Oh today we'll merry merry be
And nosh some hamentashen.

And Esther was the lovely queen of King Ahashveyrosh
When Haman said he'd kill us all,
Oh my how he did scare us.

CHORUS

But Mordechai her cousin bold
Said: "What a dreadful chutzpah
If guns were but invented now,
This Haman I would shoot, Sir."

CHORUS

*When Esther speaking to the King
Of Haman's plot made mention
"Ha, ha," said he, "Oh, no he won't!
I'll spoil his bad intention."

CHORUS

The guest of honor he shall be,
This clever Mr. Smarty
And high above us he shall swing
At a little hanging party.

CHORUS

Of all his cruel and unkind ways
This little joke did cure him
And don't forget we owe him thanks
For this jolly feast of Purim.

[Straybow]

I thought the fast was Thursday.

[lord of the mark]

The 14th of Adar (the feast of Purim) was Saturday night -- Sunday day.

The fast of Esther is normally on the 13th of Adar. But this year the 13th fell on Friday night - Saturday day.

We dont fast on Shabbat, since the commandmant to celebrate Shabbat trumps most other ritual obligations. So the fast was Thursday night - Friday this year.


Note today was the 15th of Adar - Shushan Purim. Anyone who lives in a walled city gets an extra day to celebrate, as per the last verses of the scroll of Esther. (though its odd thinking of metro DC as an "open village")


Note also - the shabbat just before Purim is Shabbat Zachor, which means a special Torah reading.

So this year the sequence, if you were doing EVERYTHING, was fast beginning at sun-up Friday, end the fast at sundown, celebrate shabbat friday night, and then on saturday, of course, then make Havdalah (ritual for ending shabbat), then immediately start service for reading the scroll of Esther, go to sleep, go to shul the next day to hear the scroll AGAIN, say "al ha nissim" section during each of the normal thrice daily prayers. Then back to normal at sundown Sunday, unless youre in a walled city.

Personally I skipped the fast (I dont yet do half day "minor" fasts) also missed the sunday morning megillah reading, though i was present at a purim carnival on Sunday.

[Straybow]

Ah, we were confused Thursday vs Thursday night.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Straybow
Ah, we were confused Thursday vs Thursday night.

The day runs from sunset to sunset, recall, not midnight to midnight.

Va yehi erev, va yehi boker, yom echad.

There was evening, and there was morning, one day.


But note, minor fasts (those other than Yom Kippur and Tisha B'av) are all half day fasts - sunrise to sundown only. So although the day of Taanit Esther (fast of Esther) began at sundown on Thursday, the actual fast began at sunup Friday.